COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — His guys were forewarned.
During two physical midweek practices, West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson and his staff established the first meaningful depth chart of camp in advance of Saturday’s scrimmage.
Distilling position races was the initial step. Now Gibson wants to establish quality control for his overall product.
“We’re a yo-yo,” said Gibson, who’d prefer to be the guy yanking the string. “One day we look really good and I have high hopes; the next day we’re really bad and I’m thinking whoof.”
He lauded players for making fewer repeat mistakes but joked that instead “they’re finding ways to mess up things you never thought were possible.”
Such is the predicament with replacing eight starters and 12 contributors from the 2015 group that made last year’s camp far less suspenseful. Two linebacking spots remain in contention, along with three jobs in the secondary.
Gibson anticipates tough decisions as coaches make scrimmage evaluations Saturday night and begin roster-shaping for the Missouri opener Sept. 3.
“We haven’t practiced yet in pads where we had 11 guys that we feel deserve to be out there with the ones,” Gibson said.
Cornerbacks coach Blue Adams, famously noncommittal about his pecking order through 11 days of camp, continues to split reps between 10 players. (The only scholarship corner out of that mix appears to be freshman Jake Long, who’s ticketed for season-ending shoulder surgery.) Gibson, however, acknowledged what the media has seen during three viewing sessions: Seniors Antonio Crawford, Rasul Douglas, Nana Kyrehmeh and graduate transfer Maurice Fleming are “probably out in the lead.”
Even that brings a caveat, with Gibson emphasizing coaches are “not giving up” on junior college signees Elijah Battle and Mike Daniels, among 15 newcomers on defense.
Acclimating so many fresh personalities to such a wide-open camp slows the installation process and creates erratic day-to-day results. The introduction period invariably finds first-timers absorbing blunt lessons about expectations.
“We had a bad day last Saturday, with guys loafing during some drills,” Gibson said. “So we met as a team, called some guys out who needed to be called out and told them that’s not the standard of the way we play here.
“A lot of people say they don’t coach effort—well, we do. We’re going to coach it every snap, and if you loaf you’re not going to be on the field.”
The Big 12, which boasted five of the nation’s top 14 scoring attacks last season, might actually be more explosive this fall given the returning lineup of killer quarterbacks. An inconvenient time for defensive retooling, to be sure, though Gibson believes his unit measures up athletically and “we’ll be OK” if gang-tackling fervor compensates for inexperience.
“But it’s tough to be just ’OK’ in this league,” he said. “Being ‘OK’ in this league means you’re going to give up 45 or 50.”